Ask the Indys (By Azi Paybarah, WNYC/The Empire) Jackie Salit, a nationally recognized figure in the Independence Party movement is hosting a conference call next Monday

Poll: Americans want Obama and GOP to work together (By: CNN Deputy Political Director Paul Steinhauser) The survey indicates a partisan divide on the issue, with 94 percent of Democrats saying the GOP should cooperate with Obama and congressional Democrats, with more seven in ten independent voters agreeing. But Republicans appear divided, with 49 percent saying the two sides should try to reach common ground and 47 percent saying that GOP leaders should stick to their beliefs even if it causes political gridlock.

Reaching for a Legacy: A “Nonpartisan” Surrender? (By Peter Schrag, California Progress Report) Maybe the longest lasting reforms of Schwarzenegger’s years in Sacramento will be the changes in the elections process –the commission that will replace the legislature in drawing legislative and congressional districts and the creation of the “top two” election process, approved by the voters last June, in which Californians can choose any candidate regardless of party in the primary and in which the top two vote getters, again regardless of party, will face off in the general election.

American exceptionalism: an old idea and a new political battle (By Karen Tumulty, Washington Post) With a more intellectual sheen than the false assertions that Obama is secretly a Muslim or that he was born in Kenya, an argument over American exceptionalism "is a respectable way of raising the question of whether Obama is one of us," said William Galston, a former policy adviser to President Bill Clinton who is now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.